'One man aiming the upper-deck guns,' commented Jack­son. 'Don't know where he sent the last one, though.'

 The third of the upper-deck guns fired, followed by the third on the main deck. A heavy thud and splintering wood warned a shot had smashed through the Kathleen's taffrail, but a quick glance at the tiller showed the steering had not been damaged: then he saw the men hauling in the mainsheet had dissolved into a bloody tangle of bodies: the shot had landed in the middle of them.

 The Kathleen was heading north-eastward and still swing­ing fast. Ramage waited for the fourth of the lower-deck guns to fire. With a bit of luck the rest still could not be brought to bear.

 Southwick was already sending men aloft to clear the wreckage of the topmast and he came over and reported.

 "We can cut the topmast away without difficulty, sir: hasn't damaged anything else. Three of the starboard side guns dismounted. At a guess, a dozen or so of the lads killed, and maybe a couple of dozen wounded.'

'Very well: see the wounded are taken below at once.'

A bloody mess - but it could have been a lot worse. What now, though? How the devil was he going to get the men from the Tower on board if he couldn't use the frigate as a landing stage? All right, all right, he told himself: don't panic. Itemize, Ramage; itemize carefully.

Hmm ... Item: only two guns left out of the five on the Kathleen's starboard side. Very well, if I want to attack again on the starboard side, shift over larboard side guns to take their place. That'll take time, though, with the ship heeled.

 Item: all three of the shots fired by the Belette's lower deck guns hit the Kathleen; so if I have a whole broadside fired at me, I can reckon on at least ten hits out of thirteen. Ten hits would leave the Kathleen as so much driftwood.

 Item: the Belette is impregnable so far as the Kathleen's concerned: despite being raked with grapeshot, her aftermost guns had fired, and fired accurately. The guns' crews might have been killed, but others quickly replaced them.

 Item: the - a sudden thought struck him: although the Belette's impregnable so far as the cutter is concerned, what about the Belette's former crew in the Tower? Supposing they made a sally and recaptured her by boarding, using the masts as ladders?

 Short of the Kathleen boarding, which is impossible because we can't get alongside without being blown out of the water, that's the only chance. The more Ramage thought about it, the more convinced he became.

 It left two unknown factors: how many French soldiers are there in the Belette; how many French soldiers are besieging the Tower?

 Ramage reckoned there were at least six score seamen and Marines in the Tower; and he'd have to chance that most of them had muskets or cutlasses. If he organized it properly, the  Belettes would have a vital ally - surprise; often the most decisive factor in any battle. A horde of British seamen suddenly yelling and whooping their way out of the Tower and making a bolt for the cliff top might well get them through a French cordon of twice their number. And in the Belette her­self, the seamen would have all the advantage of fighting in a ship they knew intimately, while the French soldiers would be tripping over everything.

 That settled it. Ramage rubbed his forehead: how could he convey the idea to the Belette's captain, marooned in his lofty Tower? There's no signal in the book to cover it.

 Meanwhile the Kathleen was still running north-eastward, wasting time. He glanced up and saw the men lowering the last few pieces of the shattered topmast to the deck, and Jackson was walking towards him.

'All the wounded have been taken below, sir. Ten dead and three won't last long.'

Thirteen men killed unnecessarily, Ramage thought bitterly.

'How many wounded altogether?'

'Fifteen, sir.'

 Twenty-five killed and wounded out of a ship's company of sixty-five: more than a third - nearly a half, in fact. Enough to satisfy anyone who rated a ship's effectiveness in battle by the size of the butcher's bill, even if her captain was still 'on trial'.

Yet he was lucky - Southwick, Appleby, Jackson and Evans had all escaped.

'Mr Southwick - a moment, if you please.'

 The Master came striding over, a cheerful look still on his face: a man who thrived on difficulties, Ramage noted thankfully.

 'How long before I can tack? We're wasting time standing out to sea like this.'

 'Give me two minutes, sir. I’m just making sure all the halyards are free to run and checking the shrouds and stays.'

'Very well.'

He said to Jackson: 'Signal book, please.'

 Ramage flicked over the pages, glancing at the numbers of the signals on the left and their meanings on the right.

First, he would hoist 'Prepare for Battle'. The Belettes will understand that easily enough. They'll have seen the damage to the cutter and the captain's no doubt wondering what Ramage was going to do next.

 Ah! Ramage jabbed the page with his finger - he should have thought of that: the 'Preparative' flag, followed by the signal to board the enemy. The actual wording was 'To lay the enemy on board as arriving up with them', but when hoisted with the 'Preparative' flag, the Belette's captain would not obey it until the Preparative flag was hauled down.

He'd just told Jackson to get the flags bent on the halyards in readiness when Southwick came aft to report that the main­mast was now clear of wreckage.

'Right,' snapped Ramage. 'We'll go about at once.'

 Three minutes later the Kathleen had turned and was plunging in towards the shore again, hard on the wind, sluicing spray washing away the dark stains on the deck by the dimounted guns and farther aft, where the men at the mainsheet had been killed.

 If the French gunners had used grape or caseshot instead of ordinary round shot ... Grape would have done much more damage aloft than just smash the topmast; case shot - forty-two iron balls each weighing four ounces - would have fanned out to kill just about everyone on deck. Ramage shivered.

He'd better give the Belettes as much time as possible to get ready - it would be no easy task giving orders to four score or more seamen crowded into that Tower.

'Jackson - hoist both the signals, but make sure you've got the "Preparative" before the second one.'

'Aye aye, sir.'

 Ramage watched a red flag followed by a flag quartered in red and white squares soar up the halyard.

To Prepare for Battle, one of the most exciting signals in the book....

Through his telescope he saw the Tower acknowledge.

 Then, on another halyard, Jackson hoisted a flag divided horizontally into five blue and four white stripes: 'Prepara­tive'.

Finally the American hauled away at a two-flag hoist, the first a blue cross on white, the second horizontal stripes of blue, white and red - 'To lay the enemy on board...'

Once again the Tower acknowledged.

 Everything depends on the timing ... everything depends on the timing ... Well, not everything: if the men in the Tower failed to carry the Belette by boarding, no timing in the world would save the Kathleen from being blown out of the water because he wouldn't know of their failure early enough to get clear.

 Looking round the deck, Ramage saw the rolls of hammocks in boarding nets which he had ordered the Bosun's Mate to prepare for when the Kathleen went alongside-before he knew the French were in occupation. It'd be worth getting them rigged over the side. And the hands for grapnels - had any been killed? He walked over to Southwick and gave him the necessary instructions.

 Perhaps the wind was easing off after all: earlier he had noticed momentary pauses, as if the Libeccio was occasionally holding its breath. He had often seen half a dozen pauses like that herald the change in ten minutes from a strong wind to nothing, leaving a ship becalmed and wallowing in a nasty sea, with everything aloft thumping and slatting and everything below jumping up and down as if it had St Vitus' dance. Supposing he was becalmed a hundred yards short of the Belette, after the seamen had left the Tower... ?